Milano – Urban transformations

From an area that symbolised post-war industrial Italy to a centre of international fame for art and creativity.

Milan is a very dynamic city capable of adapting itself and reacting to change. Over the last thirty years it has transformed itself from being one of the major industrial centres of Europe to an efficient and smart city, a capital of fashion and design.
It is noticeable even on a small scale with bars, restaurants and shops being modernised and using both contemporary methods of communication and contemporary language to stimulate interest and to attract clients.

The last few years have witnessed urban renewal on a grand scale not only in Porta Nuova, CityLife and Bicocca but also in other zones such as Lambrate, Isola and Tortona where extensive use was made of existing buildings in order to preserve their character and history.

The phenomenon of Milan’s transformation, which was made up of many small projects over a period of thirty years, in the area between Via Tortona and Via Savona pioneered the re-use of old buildings in order to avoid the degradation of the environment, a move that has been copied by many European communities. The projects have attracted grand fashion businesses, service organisations, cultural and performance centres and exhibition spaces and there has been the additional spin-off of new restaurants, cafes and bars, all due to the impetus created by urban renewal.

Until the first half of the nineteenth century it was a rural zone characterised by open fields and the large naviglio canal (Naviglio Grande). Things changed after the construction of the railway to Vigevano in 1865 when the process of industrialisation commenced, a process that continued until the 1960’s. It was a process that was typical of the expansion outside of the Spanish Walls (bastioni Spagnoli).

Buildings typical of the zone have internal courtyards and there are also blocks of compact apartments for workers built with external walkways and wrought-iron balustrades (case a ringhiera).
After the energy crisis of the 1960s the factories were abandoned and they remained unused for many years.

The first step of a renaissance

The first example of urban renewal was the redevelopment of part of the old railway workshops at Porta Genova, and spaces adjacent to them, as Superstudio dedicated to fashion photography and services related to it.

In 1985 an large company that focussed on restoration of old buildings redeveloped the Bisleri factory as its headquarters and that was followed in 1987 by an important fashion photography studio and organisation that makes costumes for theatrical productions staged in such famous theatres as La Scala and the Paris Opera House.

Cultural and creative activities were fostered with the establishment of studios, laboratories and facilities that encouraged the development of new initiatives.

The initial redevelopment projects have acted like a fuse for the development of others projects none of which have received government funding. This amazing urban renewal continues apace and continues to attract new businesses and activities. A new identity and focus have evolved that attract major events such as Tortona design weekwhich is part of the world renowned International Furniture Exhibition Salone internazionale del Mobile.

The exhibition.

I visited this exhibition Saturday on 02/10.
The exhibition is a chance to retrace the artist’s complex personality, reinforcing and enlarging the distintive characteristics that popular culture has given to her. Her works features feminism, the celebration of her body with the frequent self-portraits and her multifaceted sexuality. There are also elements that illustrate her proximity to communism and the Russian revolutionary, Lev Trotsky, and his escape from Russia as well as her phisical disability and her associated phisical and mental pains.

The items shown are paintings, photos, objects and letters that come from Casa Azul’s collection which was descovered in the 2007, the former artist’s house which is now Frida Kahlo’s Museum and which is located in the suburb of Coyoacan, the collection of Isolda P. Kahlo, artist’s niece and now the director of the Frida Kahlo Corporation as well as artworks from Dolores Olmedo Museum in Mexico City and Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, the latter being the most important in the world.

Drawings and paintings on exhibition include the famous Selfportrait with monkey from Buffalo Museum and for the first time Nina con collar, painted in 1929 and gifted to Frida’s assistant upon the artist’s death, it was considered lost for a long time.

The vividly coloured paintings which are surrealistic, visionary and sometimes a bit naive, exude the most important aspects of the artist’s poetry, her personal pain and her dramatic accident when she was 18 which, after 32 operations, left her unable to move for years and made motherhood an impossibility. She touches on the Mexican Revolution, her interactions with communism, feminism, transgression and her deep love for Diego Rivera as weel as the adultery that led to divorce and recommencement of their relationship that lasted until her death.

The Museum.

The MUDEC Museo delle culture Milano
The City of Milano bought the former industrial area of Officine Ansaldo in the 1990. The once abandoned area is now full of spaces for performing arts, studios and creative laboratories. In this urban district a museum that is dedicated to exhibiting aspects of different cultures from over the worls has been developed. Today in this polyvalent space is housed the collection of the City of Milan that include over 7000 works of art date from 1200BC to the early 18th century as well as tools, fabrics and musical instruments.

In 2000 architect David Chipperfield won the contest to design the redevelopment of Ansaldo area. As a result of the project 17.000 square meters of an industrial archaeology site that dates back to 1904. The museum is characterized by the refit of the main buildings that preserved their industrial aesthetyc. A new construction with an organic shape unites the older buildings and cover the empty space between them. This iconic space has surfaces in opal glass mounted on a frame steel structure. The Museum has three floors. The ground floor contains the hall, tickets vending area, design shop, storage space, wardrobe, conference spaces, workshops, restoration labs and a space for kids, the Mude lab.
The exhibition area, both for permanent and temporary displays, is on the first floor and it shows off the new, bright “piazza coperta”. There is also an auditorium for visual arts.